Category Archives: Newest Blogs (最新ブログ)

By Billy Hammond (Copyright AELS) March 9, 2021 Japan probably has the world’s shortest time span for fads. Japanese people seem to be extremely eager to jump on the bandwagon whenever something new comes out, but their interest is usually extremely short-lived. Whether it be catchy words or phrases, foods or material objects, what’s in vogue this season is often gone by the next. Perhaps this has been the Japanese way all along, as evidenced by the beginning of its old syllabary, iroha (iro wa nioedo, chirinuru wo: [flower] colors are fragrant, but eventually will fall off and scatter). エバネセント（一過性）日本の流行 日本の流行はおそらく世界一短い。日本人はすぐに新しい流行に乗りたいが、興味があっという間に消える。 流行言葉・食べ物・持ち物であっても今の季節に人気のあるものは季節の終わりには人気が消えている場合が多い。 昔からこのようだったかも知らない。『イロハ』の始まりは『色は匂えど、散りぬるを…』 ************ English novels by Billy Hammond published by AELS (AELS出版英語書籍リスト）   I. Majoh Gakuin and Hikari Juku – Japanese Witch Schools Trilogy 1. Majoh Gakuin & Hikari Juku – Japanese Witch Schools 2. Lost Witch (The second book) 3. Fate & Magic (The […]

By Billy Hammond (Copyright AELS) March 7, 2021 Paul McCartney of the famed Beatles related how he had a dream in the 1960s. It seems that his departed mother came to him in his dream and said, “It’s going to be OK, just let it be.” Apparently, the phrase “let it be” sounded good to him and he turned it into a song.* Reference: Kellehear, Allan. Visitors at the End of Life (p. 119). Columbia University Press. Kindle Edition. 『Let it be』霊の曲 有名な元ビートルズのメンバー ポール・マッカートニー は1960年代に夢をみた。その夢の中に亡くなったお母さんが現れ、「すべては大丈夫だよ。そのままにして（Let it be)」。 どうやら彼がその言葉に気に入って、曲にした。 参考：Kellehear, Allan. Visitors at the End of Life (p. 119). Columbia University Press. Kindle Edition. ********** English novels by Billy Hammond published by AELS (AELS出版英語書籍リスト）   I. Majoh Gakuin and Hikari Juku – Japanese Witch Schools Trilogy 1. Majoh Gakuin & Hikari Juku – Japanese Witch Schools 2. Lost Witch (The second book) 3. Fate & Magic (The […]

By Billy Hammond (Copyright AELS) March 6, 2021     Laulau My sister and her friends made “laulau” for a charity fundraiser last month. Laulau is a Hawaiian food made with butterfish, pork and beef wrapped in taro leaf covered with ti leaves. It’s steamed, tastes a little salty and goes well with rice. It’s a popular food for fundraisers (I helped made it often when I was a Boy Scout and also for my judo and karate clubs). It’s a food that you should really try if you want to sample Hawaiian cuisine. Don’t eat too many, though (it will give you the runs!) *Photos taken by my sister ラウラウ 先月妹と彼女の友人達は慈善団体の募金イベントのために『ラウラウ』を作った。ラウラウとはハワイの現地料理で、マナガツオ、豚肉、牛肉、ハワイアン塩をタロ芋葉で包んで、センネンボクの葉でまとめてかぶせた料理。蒸して作ったラウラウは塩分が高いため、ハワイの高温環境で長持ちする。味は塩が効いていてご飯にとても合う。 ハワイでは資金集めによく使われる料理で、私はボーイスカウトや空手と柔道クラブのイベントによく手伝って作った料理だ。 本物のハワイの現地料理を味わたいなら、ラウラウを一度食べる必要がある（但し、数多くを食べない方がいい（見事に下痢するよ！） ************** English novels by Billy Hammond published by AELS (AELS出版英語書籍リスト）   I. Majoh Gakuin and Hikari Juku – Japanese Witch Schools Trilogy 1. Majoh Gakuin & Hikari Juku – […]

By Billy Hammond (Copyright AELS) February 26, 2021 The epinephrine used in the Epi Pen used to treat the anaphylactic shock that is currently being talked about in the news a lot is quite an interesting drug. It is one of the catecholamines (catechol = ring structure with two hydroxyl groups) and can be both a hormone and neurotransmitter. It works as an α-agonist at high doses and as a β-agonist at low doses. Thus, at high doses it causes vasoconstriction, which increases the blood pressure (both systolic and diastolic). Likewise when acting as a β1 agonist, it increases the heart rate and its contractility. When it works as a β2 agonist, it relaxes vascular tissue and respiratory smooth muscle to result in brochodilation and a slight decrease in diastolic pressure. Because of its characteristics, it’s used to treat cardiac […]

By Billy Hammond February 22, 2021 In the famous case of James Leininger, the young boy who remembered being a US pilot shot down in WWII, there is another aspect to his story with interesting implications. It seems that he remembered being able to choose his birth parents while he was in “heaven” He apparently chose his parents while they were in Hawaii before he was born*. He offered specific information about the couple’s stay there. This advances an interesting idea: that the deceased get to choose their parents. Dr. Tucker mentions other instances in his well-researched book, “Return to Life”, but this example is the most intriguing , because the geographical distances involved in this case are so wide. 生まれる前の親選び 第二次世界大戦にパイロットであったジェイムズ ・レイニンガー の有名な輪廻例の話の中には面白い情報がある。 どうやら彼は別世界に居た間に生まれてくる親を選べた。両親がハワイの旅行中に観察して選んだ。選んだ瞬間の特定できる情報（ピンクホテル滞在や海辺の夕食中）も提供した。* この例により、生まれ変わる前に親を選べることが考える。タッカー先生は他の似た実例 を『Return to Life』に取り上げるが、地理的な距離から考えるとこれが最も面白いだ。 *Tucker M.D., Jim B.. Return to Life (p. 85, 86). St. […]

By Billy Hammond (Copyright AELS) February 3, 2021 Advanced Japanese Culture The trend today in some of the woke states is to provide unisex (gender neutral) restrooms. California enacted it’s unisex restroom law in 2016. When I first came to Japan in 1980, most of the restrooms in train stations and companies were unisex. I still recall my surprise at standing at a urinal and having women pass behind me to the stalls located deeper in the restroom facility at Tennoji Station. Japan was already far ahead of the West in those days, but as the Japanese began to emulate Western culture, the unisex restrooms disappeared in favor of the segregated restrooms favored by Americans and Europeans. As in many other cases the love of foreign culture caused Japan to revise its own, only to find that they had the […]

By Billy Hammond (Copyright AELS) January 18, 2021 SARS-CoV-2 Treat in Place As Japan’s hospitals fill up due to the pandemic, it is becoming obvious that they will not be able to handle the flood of patients resulting from SARS-CoV-2. It may seem cruel and callous, but the final answer lies in the best option for treating a pandemic, which is to treat in place. Assembling patients into a single location, such as a hospital to care for them makes sense in the case of non-infectious illnesses, MCIs or injuries, but it probably isn’t the best way to handle viruses with the infectiousness of SARS-CoV-2. For one thing, you’re putting patients with various viral loads in a single location where those with the higher viral levels can take the airborne virus to higher levels. Furthermore, no matter how much care […]

By Billy Hammond (Copyright AELS) January 6, 2021 The other day, I was wondering if I should invest in a 5G capable smartphone and decided to check out how far the networks had been deployed in Japan. A check at this site convinced me that changing over isn’t worth the money at the moment. Note that you’ll need to choose the Carrier on the page to view the coverage. If you just want to see the docomo areas, you can take a look at this map in Japanese (the red circles are 5G). The bottom line is that 5G hasn’t really arrived yet and since smartphones evolve every day, you’d be best holding off on getting a 5G model unless you live in one of those few metropolitan areas where you can access it. 5Gはまだまだ 先日、5Gスマホへの買い替えを考えていた。そこで国内のネットワーク展開を調べた。このサイトを見たら、展開がまだまだだと分かった（地図を使うには『Carrier』を選択する必要がある）。今のネットワーク網なら買い替えのお金はもったいないとも解った。 ドコモだけの地図ならここで見られる。 結局、5Gはまだだ。スマホがどんどん進化しているので大都会のサービスが普及している狭い地域内に住んでいない限り、5G対応スマホの今の購入は損。 *************** English […]

By Billy Hammond (Copyright AELS) January 4, 2021 DDT Many folks who are reading this article will never have heard of the insecticide DDT. It was developed by the Swiss chemist Müller in 1939 and he won a Nobel Prize for it in 1948. It was also one of the chemicals that received a few pages of attention in my college physical chem text in the early 1970s. It was widely used in WWII to control typhus in mosquito-infested battlegrounds and almost wiped out the disease where it was used. In 1945 permission for use in agriculture was granted and it nearly wiped out malaria in North America and Europe. Japanese people who were alive at the end of WWII probably remember being dusted with its powder formulation, which was used for flea and lice control. In 1962 Rachel Carson […]

By Billy Hammond (Copyright AELS) January 3, 2021 As I was reading psychiatrist Dr. Jim Tucker’s “Return to Life”, I found an interesting case* taken from his mentor Dr. Ian Stevenson in which one of his associates, Francis Story visited a man in Thailand who claimed to have been reincarnated from a life as a snake. It seemed that he had been a python in his previous life and had been killed by a local hunter. He also claimed to have been a deer in his life before the python. The man’s name was Dalawong and when he was three, he came face to face with the man who killed him in his life as a snake. He was able to give details that only the man would know. Interestingly enough, Dalawong also suffered from ichthyosis, wherein the skin takes […]